Linguist, strategically-speaking - taking communication to the next level for organisations from the UN to the University of Edinburgh. Peonies, powerlifting, and petting other people's dogs in my spare time.
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12 free(ish) tools to make your work day better!
Published 12 months ago • 3 min read
Olim
March 27th
12 free(ish) tools to make your work day better!
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Welcome to the 38th instalment of the Olim Love Letters - a weekly newsletter written by me, Eloise. Here, we talk about connection, copy, Really Weird Childhood Stories™, and the odd linguistic snippet thrown in for good measure.
Hi Reader,
Something a bit different today.
I’ve rounded up all the resources I wish I’d had when I started out as a freelancer that have helped me to become more focused, more productive, and ultimately, better at my work.
0_o
These aren’t all sexy, but believe me, Reader, when I say these are effective. Take what works for you, and leave the rest.
Productivity tools for when my brain is more skittish than squirrels at a rave with a six pack of Monster:
Brilliant for blocking all the apps I find myself disappearing down without ever quite meaning to - you can set custom sessions across timeframes, specific days, and more.
I’ve cut down on my social media usage *dramatically* in the last three months thanks to their blocker (and feel so much happier for it).
Do you love working from a coffee shop but find it’s not always feasible? Coffivity is the next best thing, and has music, focus timers, and most importantly - coffee shop background noise baked in. Nice if you need to do deep creative work without the banshee shriek of a steam wand in the background.
Now, I don’t tend to answer the prompt “What is your goal for today?” because the answer is usually to eat my weight in cheesy snacks, but I do like that this stops Google’s Chrome defaulting to the “eight sites you visit most” (which I will wander into like a schmuck in a forest). Also, the pictures are pretty!
I’ve been time tracking since my agency days in 2017. This little tool records it all.
Making time tracking a habit has been enormously helpful in terms of qualifying the value of my projects and whether or not my work is driving the right kind of hourly rate.
Superb for checking how you’re coming out against the Pareto Principle (80% of your clients pay 20% of your fee, but take up all your time, vs. the 20% who pay 80% of your income!)
Bonus points: syncs with your Google calendar so you can see what you’ve got in your diary without tab-hopping.
Also, get their desktop extension which prompts you to toggl when you start or switch any task - handy if you find yourself forgetting to track what you're doing.
Another fab time-tracking task tool that lets you track what you’re doing and when. I like their round-up feature at the end of the day for summarising what you achieved. Their blog is also lovely.
Hands down the most helpful, coherent (!) AI tool I’ve used. I pay for the Pro version, and it is well worth the $20 per month.
I use Claude for all sorts - ideation, prompt suggestions, cleaning text or notes, analysis, and find it genuinely indispensible for accelerating a lot of the humdrum work that can take up valuable time.
Intelligent, clear analysis of the readability and accessibility of your text.
Readable gives you practical suggestions for improving readability and it highlights problem sentences - a bit like the Hemingway App but less pretentious and mean about adverbs.
If Hemingway had a facial expression, it would be this.
The biggest, best, and most badass ‘corrective’ writing tool I’ve encountered thus far. Excellent for big text (we’re talking 25k+ words), spotting granular errors, and fabulous for investigating consistency.
Ah, a first draft.
It’s spenny, but well worth it if you have a mammoth task that needs tackling. Also, at the time of writing, they've got a 25% sale on. Writers - run, don't walk.
Free (quite limited by 10 headline credits a month), with paid options
A nifty tool for analysing your SEO potential and the emotive impact of your headlines. Well worth paying for if you have a web project going on, as it has a great “power word” bank and a tonne of tools for iterating on your headlines.
And, last but not least (I am embarrassed to be sharing the fact that I regularly need this ) - for the mathematically challenged among us, I give you: Percentage Calculator!
Linguist, strategically-speaking - taking communication to the next level for organisations from the UN to the University of Edinburgh. Peonies, powerlifting, and petting other people's dogs in my spare time.
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